DIRECTV and local television broadcaster Griffin Media reached a new agreement that restores a handful of network-affiliated stations in Oklahoma to the company’s satellite and streaming TV platforms, The Desk has learned.
The channels were restored to DIRECTV’s platforms late Tuesday afternoon, shortly after the deal was signed, according to a source familiar with the matter. The channels have been unavailable to DIRECTV’s subscribers since early May, when a distribution agreement between the company and Griffin Media lapsed without a new deal in place.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Typically, DIRECTV blames a broadcaster’s demand for higher distribution fees as the chief reason for a programming-related blackout on its platform.
The channels covered by the new agreement include Griffin Media’s flagship statement KWTV (Channel 9, CBS) in Oklahoma City and its co-owned independent station KSBI (Channel 52), as well as Griffin’s Tulsa stations KOTV (Channel 6, CBS) and KQCW (Channel 19, the CW Network).
The resolution likely brings a small sense of relief to DIRECTV’s customers in the Sooner State, though subscribers in Tulsa are still without their local NBC affiliate, KJRH (Channel 2), because of an ongoing dispute between DIRECTV and the E. W. Scripps Company that is still unresolved.
The situation between DIRECTV and Scripps is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon: This week, Scripps CEO Adam Symson blasted DIRECTV for its “anti-competitive, antitrust behavior,” saying the company did not appear to “care about the work we do in the local communities and that local people actually rely on, whether it’s local news or local sports.”
“Rather than rationalize their lineups and end the carriage and payment for a bunch of zombie channels owned by bigger multi-billion dollar conglomerates that have leverage over them, they are screwing with the consumer and what the consumer actually wants to watch, which is broadcast television, local journalism and local sports,” Symson charged.
